Blog Post Image: Pinwheel ‘living’ crystals and the origin of life

U-M researchers have found in a simulation that simply inducing nanoparticles to spin causes them to self assemble into ‘living rotating crystals.’ The size and direction of the arrows indicate the movements of the particles, while the yellow and blue colors represent clockwise and counterclockwise spinners, respectively. The arrows arranged in orderly grids are particles that have formed rotating crystals, while the large, aligned arrows at the boundaries show how particles are driven along the interfaces. Image courtesy Sharon Glotzer